Kitty Ussher, the economic secretary at the Treasury, insisted today that Labour was "a pro-business government" and said at this stage "the worst thing we could do is change the remit of the Bank of England covering inflation".
Flanked by columnist and economist Irwin Stelzer, and private equity boss Simon Walker, chief executive of the British Venture Capitalist Association, she brushed off suggestions from Stelzer about introducing a new tax on land or his suggestion that like the US Fed it should have a remit to balance inflation with keeping people in jobs.
She said Labour was equipped to handle the present crisis because only it "looked after vulnerable whatever Tory rhetoric is used" and said the Tories were "emotionally ill-equipped to intervene".
Walker said the new crisis would mean more business for private equity and sovereign wealth funds – eg the Chinese and Indian governments — to invest in Britain. So that's all right then.
However, the Labour faithful should not be too downhearted. Ussher kept calling contributors "comrade" throughout the proceedings.
